The Mother Of All Traffic Jams (Warning: It’s Horrifying)

A confluence of factors led to what appears to be at least a two-mile traffic jam in northwest Beijing on Saturday night. (Prepare to gape in horror around the 30-second mark as the camera pans out.) It was raining. It was a long block. It was in Zhongguancun, an incredibly busy part of town known for its electronics stores and colleges. And, most crucially, a traffic light had broken. This is my every nightmare about the city, frightening precisely because I — and any Beijinger, really — could easily find myself stuck in that paralyzing morass of postmodernity, equipped with no salve for a spiking blood pressure except heinous imaginings of unspeakable acts to perform on sentient, suffering beings. The abyss gazes back indeed.

The most amazing part of that jam? For a while, it seems like the only cars going anywhere were the ones turning left. That’s not how it should be. Youku video for those in China after the jump, if your heart can stand it.